DOE URANIUM PLAN AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking public comment on a plan to ensure safe storage, transportation, and disposition of its reusable excess uranium at DOE facilities throughout the nation.

The draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) document describing the plan, "Implementation of a Comprehensive Management Program for the Storage, Transportation, and Disposition of Potentially Reusable Uranium Materials" (DOE/EA-1393), is available for public comment through June 21.

The Department’s inventories of excess low enriched uranium, natural uranium, and depleted uranium are stored at many sites across the nation, with only a few having long-term uranium missions. This program will cover excess uranium materials now in the form of oxides, metals, and other stable forms. It will not include uranium waste, irradiated material, uranium hexafluoride (UF₆), highly enriched uranium (HEU), or uranium 233.

In the PEA, the Department of Energy (DOE) will consider two storage alternatives. The first or "centralized storage" alternative would consolidate at one location all potentially reusable uranium materials that are economically feasible to relocate. The Department’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, is the preferred location.

The second or "partially consolidated storage" alternative would consolidate at several sites: DOE, commercial, or both. This would include potentially reusable uranium materials that can be economically relocated and may include consolidation by region or by chemical form.

A copy of the draft document is available at DOE Public Reading Rooms in Aiken, South Carolina; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; Piketon, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. The document can also be obtained via the Internet at http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/Foia/NEW.htm.

Public input is encouraged in the decision-making process. Comments may be submitted by June 21 to David Allen, U.S. Department of Energy, SE-30-1, P.O. Box 2001, Oak Ridge, TN 37831. In addition, a public meeting will be held on June 4 at 5 p.m. in Piketon, Ohio, at the Vern Riffe Vocational School.

For further information, contact Carolyne Thomas, DOE Oak Ridge Offices, at (865) 576-2690 or Walter Perry, DOE Public Affairs Office, at 1-800-382-6938 (option 1).

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